I've been installing Ubuntu, and using it on a daily basis, on various machines since 10.04. Recently I exchange my laptop (Intel core i3 2570 with 2GB RAM, multiple boot: Win 10, Ubuntu 16.04, OpenSUSE, Debian 8, Fedora 24) with another one (Intel core i5, 4GB RAM, dual boot: Win 7, Win 10). I need to install Linux (any version will be fine) so I choose Ubuntu 17.04 for a simple reason: it doesn't require you to create a swap partition.

As you may aware of, for Ubuntu 16.10 and earlier, during install, it will require you to create a swap partition and if you don't want to do that you can create your own swapfile for this purpose. Ubuntu 17.04 by default saves you the trouble --no need to create swap partition or swapfile, no references whatsoever in /etc/fstab re: swap.

As for (major) upgrades, I see no problems regarding your personal data or software. You can always use "sudo apt update || sudo apt upgrade" for minor upgrades, and "sudo apt update || sudo apt dist-upgrade" for upgrading from 17.04 to 17.10, and from 17.10 to 18.04, and so on. In fact I on the aforementioned laptop I continuously updated from Ubuntu 14.04, to 15.04, and finally to 16.04. I can't just miss the new release every April of the year.

All over the year, the files, the partition, etc still remain intact. It is maybe worth noted that I use a separate partition for /home directory, and a separate /data directory shared between Windows and Linux.